Lord Meishan had some understanding of Fu Jiuyun and that young lady’s situation. He disapproved of his old friend’s relationship. Of course, Fu Jiuyun also disapproved of his situation with Xin Mei. While that young lady was still bathing in the hot springs, the two men thoroughly mocked each other.
“Speak your business quickly. Tonight, even if you bring a hundred carts of liquor for drowning sorrows, I won’t drink with you.”
Lord Meishan was distracted, very much wanting to send them away immediately.
Fu Jiuyun just looked at him and smiled, smiling until he felt uncomfortable all over and couldn’t help jumping up and down: “What are you smiling about?!”
Fu Jiuyun said flatly: “I’m smiling at a certain useless immortal who’s about to become a pig head.”
“What… what are you saying…”
“Is the War Ghost’s wife at your house?”
“How… how do you know…”
“So she really is here.” Fu Jiuyun continued smiling. “Aren’t you afraid the War Ghost General will beat you into a pig head?”
Lord Meishan’s face turned green as he boasted: “He wouldn’t dare! This is my territory!”
Fu Jiuyun nodded, too lazy to bother with him: “Then work hard. I’m going outside to meet Qin Chuan. Get the liquor ready—don’t welch on me when you lose the drinking contest.”
“You’ll be the one losing!” He only knew how to stamp his feet when angry, then suddenly paused. “Qin Chuan? That young lady changed her name?”
Fu Jiuyun didn’t answer. His previously smiling expression darkened for an instant, and he turned and left.
Previously when he mentioned that young lady, he was always beaming with joy. After the Great Yan Kingdom fell, Fu Jiuyun hadn’t shown a trace of smile for a full two years. Recently when drinking and chatting with him, there were vague hints that the young lady had news again, and only then did smiles return to his eyes. But just now, his expression was truly uncomfortable to witness.
Little Mei was still the best… Lord Meishan sighed deeply. That young lady called Qin Chuan was too tormenting—ordinary people couldn’t handle her.
That night Fu Jiuyun probably greatly enjoyed some romantic pleasures. When Lord Meishan was drinking sobering tea, he heard the spirit ghosts whispering outside: “…Such a scene that even the banana spirits outside the window ran away in shame. Worthy of being Lord Jiuyun—our master is a full 108,000 li behind him. That person has been here two days and hasn’t even touched a hand.”
He blushed and ran over to scold: “All of you shut up! I am an upright gentleman—don’t compare me to that dissolute rogue!”
The newly arrived spirit ghosts were frightened and ran away. Only that spirit ghost who often picked his nose rolled his eyes: “You’re clearly just afraid.”
“Speaking of which, I’ve always wondered—am I your master or is someone else your master…”
“Stop changing the subject.”
“Little Mei and I have a pure relationship!”
“Actually, you just have a one-sided crush on her while she treats you like air.”
Lord Meishan ran out in frustration: “I already said it’s pure…”
“Self-deception.”
Lord Meishan ran away with tears: “Just wait! Tonight I’ll show you my methods!”
The spirit ghosts poked their heads out from the bushes, looking up at that bold senior with admiration and apprehension: “…Senior, you’re too direct. At least leave master some face.”
The senior spirit ghost flicked away some nose dirt and let out a well-intentioned sigh: “Uncut jade cannot become a vessel. I’m provoking him—see, he’s taking action now, isn’t he?”
Lord Meishan’s surge of motivation only lasted until outside Xin Mei’s guest room. She hadn’t gone to sleep yet and was sitting by the open window, playing with a somewhat old puppet in her hands. The puppet had gleaming armor and held a majestic long blade—very exquisite.
Seeing him standing outside, Xin Mei smiled and waved at him: “Lord Meishan, are you looking for me to play?”
Lord Meishan instantly went soft, his whole body feeling like it was soaking in spring water as he floated over without his feet touching ground, his voice trembling: “Tonight… tonight the flowers are beautiful and the moon is round… Little Mei, let’s chat about… uh, shall we discuss life ideals or something?”
Beautiful flowers and round moon? Xin Mei looked up at the overcast sky. It was even drizzling outside—his clothes were half soaked. There wasn’t a shadow of flowers or moon to be seen.
“It’s raining outside. Come in, Lord Meishan.”
She opened the door generously, welcoming this somewhat bewildered drowned chicken immortal inside, moving a stool for him and kindly pouring him a cup of hot tea.
Lord Meishan sipped the tea and carefully raised his eyes to look at her.
The candlelight flickered just right. She had her face half-lowered, her beautiful eyelashes trembling slightly as she stared intently at the puppet in her hands, her expression gentle. Her cheeks were still plump and white, her eyes still lively and smiling—not much different from the sixteen-year-old Xin Mei in his memory.
Yet he felt she had actually changed quite a lot.
The sixteen-year-old Xin Mei was casual and free, but also reckless and crude, still carrying a child’s innocence. This kind of tender feminine charm containing a true woman’s gentleness would never have appeared on her face. The puppet in her hands, though dressed in bright clothes, was obviously old. Its features had been worn smooth from handling, and most of the paint had fallen off. Yet she loved it so much, even becoming absorbed in looking at it. She didn’t know what she was thinking about, but she even smiled, her eyebrows dancing with amusement.
Lord Meishan thought of the small portrait of Xin Mei he always kept close to his body. He had once worshipped Fu Jiuyun’s delicate and profound understanding of women. The Xin Mei in the painting was clearly two or three years older than her former self—same features exactly, but completely different bearing, full of confidence and feminine gentleness, just like her now… No, she now was even more radiant than in the painting.
He understood very well what kind of person had brought her this radiance.
It certainly wasn’t him.
Lord Meishan dejectedly slumped his shoulders.
“Lord Meishan, why aren’t you speaking? Didn’t you want to find me to play?”
Xin Mei finally came back to her senses and looked up at him expectantly.
…He felt that if he continued being useless, he’d drift further and further from what he wanted. Meishan, summon your courage! Just like when you became immortal and weathered the lightning tribulation! Stick out your chest and endure—everything will pass.
Lord Meishan cleared his throat and rarely showed a serious expression before her: “Little Mei… what kind of man do you think I am?”
First understand what position he held in her heart, then prescribe the right medicine.
Xin Mei thought about it: “An immortal even older than my great-grandfather.”
“…”
Two lines of mournful tears slid down his face.
So that’s how it was. He understood. Great-grandfather…
Nothing more needed to be asked or said. He rose dejectedly.
“Lord Meishan, do you have someone you like?”
Xin Mei’s sudden question was like a ray of sunshine through gloom, giving him a tiny bit of hope again. Lord Meishan tremblingly turned back, choking as he asked: “You… you finally noticed?”
Xin Mei nodded: “Caring about your image in others’ eyes—Master Zhao says that’s being in heat.”
Well, compared to “being in heat,” he preferred the four words “spring has come,” except his spring came too slowly and winter was really too long.
“Do you know who I like?” Lord Meishan asked in a low voice.
Xin Mei smiled mysteriously: “The Fox Immortal, right?”
“…”
Who… who could save him? His heart… his already broken heart seemed to shatter once more.
“You’re both immortals—you don’t need to care about worldly opinions. Actually, from the first time I saw you two, I thought you were well-matched. Don’t worry, I support you. Though I won’t see the Fox Immortal in this lifetime, you’re both immortals. When he comes out of seclusion next time, remember to boldly express your feelings… Eh? Lord Meishan? Lord Meishan?”
How did he disappear while she was talking? Xin Mei looked around puzzled. Was he being shy?
Lord Meishan was running frantically through the rain, icy rainwater striking his face and mixing with scalding tears as they rolled down his cheeks.
“Heaven’s thunder—!” He knelt in the pond, spreading his arms to the sky and crying in despair. “Send down a bolt of lightning to strike me dead—!”
No thunder came. The rain gradually stopped too, and the dark clouds dispersed, revealing a round, silver-white moon instead.
That night, wolf howls echoed from the pond, accompanied by ghostly wails—truly heartbreaking to hear and tear-inducing to witness.
“…Are there wolf demons that have broken into Meishan Residence?”
In a certain guest room, the sleepless Qin Chuan couldn’t help asking.
Fu Jiuyun covered her ears: “Don’t mind it—it’s someone celebrating his 101st heartbreak.”
Disturbed by wolf howls all night, Xin Mei didn’t sleep well, tossing and turning in bed. It might also be because she was no longer used to sleeping alone. Looking down at the General puppet by moonlight, though Lu Qianqiao had later made many puppets, her favorite was still the first General, even though its features had blurred. She just couldn’t put it down.
Without a familiar embrace to sleep in, she could only hug this puppet.
Xin Mei lowered her head and kissed the General’s nose tip, murmuring: “Lu Qianqiao, why haven’t you found me yet?”
She was used to sleeping curled in his arms, used to the scent of his hair and collar, used to his warmth and deep voice. Without these, she couldn’t sleep well. Now she didn’t know where he was—was he riding Lie Yunhua tirelessly searching for her, or was he sleeping too? He probably couldn’t sleep either, right? Was he also missing her scent?
The little demons in the Imperial Tomb privately loved to tease them about being too clingy. Even Master Zhao said married couples needed some distance—distance creates beauty. Now they had distance, but where was the beauty? She hadn’t discovered any.
“You need to correct your mistakes,” Xin Mei pointed at the General’s nose and lectured carefully. “You can’t be so domineering and unreasonable in the future. I’m your wife, not your daughter.”
The General couldn’t speak. Xin Mei sighed and only dozed off drowsily near dawn.
She didn’t know how long she’d slept when she was awakened by commotion outside. She was rubbing her eyes and hadn’t had time to get up when the door was kicked open with a “bang.” The War Ghost General who had been holding her in her dreams last night was truly standing in the doorway, still holding a long whip and forcing back those startled spirit ghosts.
“Ah, Lu Qianqiao.” Xin Mei drowsily called his name.
Lu Qianqiao, finally having found his wife, walked over with a dark face, scooped her up around the waist, weighed her to confirm she hadn’t lost weight or grown melancholy, then sighed in relief. He turned proudly and walked out, treating the spirit ghosts outside like air.
“You found me?” Xin Mei burrowed her head into his warm collar. Ah, her husband’s scent was indeed the most pleasant and security-inducing.
He didn’t speak, sulking. These two days he’d traveled non-stop from Xinxie Manor to Chongling Valley, wishing he could turn over every inch of earth. Only later did he remember there was a place in the world called Meishan Residence, where a very useless and gossipy immortal had once said he liked Xin Mei—sure enough, he’d found her there.
An ominous sense of alertness suddenly arose. The War Ghost’s instincts were ignited. It was one thing for someone to admire her—he could not care about that. But seducing and harassing her was another matter entirely.
Lu Qianqiao gracefully walked to the main hall entrance and turned back with a fierce glare—he didn’t glare at Lord Meishan, who seemed to be cowering under the table unwilling to come out. Without even the courage for a proper fight, he walked away disdainfully.
“…Don’t come here next time.”
Mounting Lie Yunhua, he dropped this sentence to Xin Mei.
Xin Mei, who had been sleeping confusedly, was awakened again by this still domineering and unreasonable statement. Clearly, he hadn’t reflected at all.
“Lu Qianqiao,” she looked up at him, “you need to understand—I’m not your daughter. We’re equals. You shouldn’t say ‘don’t’ to me. I am free!”
He didn’t speak.
Xin Mei pushed him away and was about to dismount, but her wrist was caught.
“…Sorry.”
Holding her tightly, burying his face in the hair he’d missed for so long, he deeply breathed in her fragrance.
He wasn’t good at getting along with women. Besides the matter with Li Chaoyang, it was also because his bloodline was originally mixed, giving him low status in the clan—no females were willing to approach him. From age fifteen he’d led troops in battle, where military discipline, masculine passion, and fighting for home and country left no room for tender romantic sentiment. Later when he met her, just after their marriage he had to deal with the Fox Clan. Accustomed to a life of iron and blood, used to giving orders and being taciturn, he unconsciously applied this approach to her as well.
Actually, his “don’t” had no effect on her at all—they both knew this.
He just… just didn’t know how to express it properly.
He wanted to be good to her, wanted her to be happy without troubles, giving her everything he thought was good. She probably very much disliked this kind of coercion, right?
Seeing her silence, he gradually loosened his arms.
“Don’t move.” She mumbled an instruction and burrowed her head into his chest again. “Hold tighter—I want to sleep.”
This embrace became close and warm again. Xin Mei felt that only now could she sleep peacefully, sighing contentedly: “I missed you to death… did you miss me?”
After a long time, this stuffy and shy man finally hummed an “mm.” Sigh, even as an old married couple, this habit of his probably couldn’t be changed.
Xin Mei slept very happily, sleeping so soundly on the return to the Imperial Tomb that she didn’t wake up, so she didn’t know that Lord Meishan had caught up and fought with Lu Qianqiao.
Master Zhao told her about this matter, though he spoke rather vaguely, saying Lord Meishan had wanted to compete with Lu Qianqiao over something and ended up beaten black and blue, crying as he went home.
“Poor fellow, fighting with the General—he was simply asking for humiliation…”
Master Zhao felt very sympathetic toward him and even wiped away some tears, deciding to continue writing this character into new plays.
That evening she asked Lu Qianqiao: “Did you really beat Lord Meishan into tatters? Why did he want to fight you?”
Lu Qianqiao thought first, then said: “He said his skin was itchy recently and wanted me to beat him a few times to help him make up his mind.”
Xin Mei understood: “He really is preparing to confess to the Fox Immortal!”
Lu Qianqiao cleverly allowed her misunderstanding, not dwelling on this issue with her.
Life in the Imperial Tomb was leisurely and pleasant, completely different from the earth-shaking changes outside.
It was said the ancient divine artifact Soul Lamp had been lit, drawing away the souls of all demons in the world. Fortunately, the Imperial Tomb had Lu Qianqiao stationed there, preserving the lives of hundreds of little demons. The outside world, having lost demonic power, became dim and colorless, and the little demons lost interest in the outside world.
Lord Meishan came once more, this time begging Lu Qianqiao to save someone. It was said that because the Soul Lamp was lit, the man called Fu Jiuyun had his soul scattered to the winds, and his beloved young lady Qin Chuan was also dying from vicious curses. It was heard that the War Ghost Clan had generations of inherited immortal pills. With nowhere else to turn, he had to shamelessly come beg Lu Qianqiao.
Xin Mei remembered that man with the tear mole from years ago at the wine house—talking and laughing casually yet tinged with melancholy. She couldn’t help feeling deeply moved, wondering if those two had ended up together. Lu Qianqiao did produce immortal pills to save people and seemed to make some private agreement with Lord Meishan. After that, several times when she sent steamed buns, pastries, and moon cakes to Meishan Residence, he wasn’t there—whether truly absent or pretending was unclear.
Tao Guoguo had been studying transformation techniques for two years. When asked what he wanted to transform into, he just blushed and wouldn’t speak. Later, Xin Mei once passed by Si Lan’s room and heard him asking Si Lan how to transform himself into a young lady. The reasons were truly unimaginable. Since it was his private matter, she and her husband couldn’t very well inquire, so they let him be.
Another two years passed, and it was heard that the tyrannical Emperor Rongzheng was overthrown by rebelling peasant soldiers, apparently with Tianyuan Kingdom forces involved. To vent their anger, the peasant soldiers hung the Emperor and Empress’s heads on the city gates for three days. Xin Xiong even reflected on this matter.
However, the most thought-provoking should be Princess Hu of Qiong Kingdom, who possessed the national treasure “Eye of God.” It was said that after peasant soldiers stormed the palace, this princess disappeared. Many countries secretly sent people to search everywhere but never got news of her. Only later, after the Soul Lamp was extinguished again and demonic power returned to the world, did rumors emerge that she had extinguished the Soul Lamp and seemingly become the wife of Tianyuan Kingdom’s Second Prince?
Rights and wrongs, gossip and hearsay—everyone had different versions, and no one knew the truth. However, for the people and demons in the Imperial Tomb, none of that mattered.
Outside there were fallen kingdoms and ruined families, separated lovers’ sorrows, heavy scheming, and forceful seizures. The sometimes swift, sometimes gradual changes of eras and dynasty replacements—the corrupt would eventually pass away, and the newborn would eventually decay too. Only the Imperial Tomb remained forever fresh and free, with gossip, laughter, melodrama, and soap opera.
They were merely outside observers, leisurely sipping tea under blooming cherry blossoms when free, passing their joyful years like this.